Fistfight
breaks out at Zanu PF meeting

SIMMERING
tensions within Zanu PF dramatically boiled over in Manicaland after a
provincial executive council meeting in Zimunya degenerated into a fistfight
as Zanu PF heavyweights wrestled for control of the province.

Report by
Faith Zaba

There was knife’s edge tension at the meeting last Friday as
provincial executive members accused each other of working with politburo
and central committee members to cause divisions in the party ahead of
make-or-break elections scheduled for 2013.

Sources who attended the
meeting told the Zimbabwe Independent Zanu PF provincial chairperson for
Manicaland, Mike Madiro, was not spared during the fracas as he was
manhandled by provincial secretary for production and labour, John
Chirimambowa, who was infuriated by allegations he was working with the
party’s senior leadership to cause confusion and ructions in the
province.

The commotion started when provincial secretary for
information and publicity Godfrey Chikwanda stood up to accuse national
secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa, politburo member Munacho
Mutezo, and central committee members Enock Porusingazi and Freddy Kanzama
of fuelling divisions in the province.

The sources said Chikwanda
accused the quartet of working with provincial executives to destabilise
provincial organs of the party. He reportedly accused the senior officials
of being behind recent machinations leading to the ouster of provincial
youth chairperson, Tawanda Mukodza, at a meeting held a week after the Zanu
PF annual conference in Gweru.

Mukodza was accused of diverting money
sourced by the youth league for the party from companies mining diamonds in
Marange for personal use.

He is alleged to have set up a timber company
and bought several cars and a house using the funds.

Mukodza has
since been replaced by lawyer, Kelvin Manyengavana.“While Chikwanda was
still speaking, Chirimambowa stood up and attacked him as well as Madiro,”
said a provincial member who attended the meeting.

“Chirimambowa attacked
Chikwanda for making the allegations and Madiro for allowing him to spread
what he said were lies.”

Sibanda
blasts Zanu PF chefs

Tough-Talking and
combative war veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda stole the limelight at the
just-ended Zanu PF national people’s conference held in Gweru when he
launched a blistering attack on the party’s so called “godfathers” for
subverting the party’s constitution for selfish interests.

Report by
Elias Mambo

Sibanda told delegates Zanu PF bigwigs are using money to
fuel factionalism at night while claiming to be supporting President Robert
Mugabe during the day.

His scathing attack received thunderous
applause from delegates who believe the party’s leadership has been treating
the contentious issue of factionalism with kid gloves when it needed a tough
stance if Zanu PF is to win critical elections scheduled for next
year.

Sources said the controversial war veterans’ leader openly told
Mugabe that some of his close allies at the high table were using money to
solicit support from the people while fuelling factionalism in the
party.

“President, we want to let you know that some of our leaders who
have a lot of money are buying support from the people and this is what has
killed the party,” Sibanda is reported to have said.“Some of our
leaders’ behaviour cannot be discussed here so I am booking an appointment
with you to let you know what is happening on the ground.”

The delegates
supported Sibanda for his fearless expose of party leaders who are on a
vote-buying spree as they jostle to succeed the aging Mugabe as party
leader.

Sibanda is not new to controversy as he recently told Mugabe that
Zanu PF was losing support as a result of a dictatorial, lacklustre and
inept party leadership failing to read the mood-swing in party
strongholds.

Sibanda has been on a trailblazing campaign across the
country’s 10 provinces to mobilise war veterans and local chiefs to prepare
and campaign for a Zanu PF victory in the forthcoming
elections.

Sibanda exposed top Zanu PF leaders who often mislead Mugabe
about events on the ground and the extent of the party’s support.

It
could also be a pointer to the divisions ripping the party apart and may
affect Mugabe’s bid to overturn a March 2008 presidential election first
round defeat to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

Close sources say
Mugabe, desperate to extend his 32-year rule, has given the firebrand war
veterans’ leader the nod to mobilise support in the provinces as the country
prepares for a make-or-break election.

The war veterans, who have often
been accused of driving political violence, have come to Mugabe’s rescue
since 2000 when party structures began to crumble as the MDC gained
popularity.

MDC-T
railroads confirmation process

THE
increasingly acrimonious intra-party fight over the MDC-T’s confirmation of
sitting MPs reached boiling point at a lengthy and stormy national executive
meeting on Tuesday as the powerful standing committee railroaded the party
into adopting the controversial procedure.

Report by Brian
Chitemba/Wongai Zhangazha

High-level sources told the Zimbabwe
Independent the criteria to select the party’s election candidates dominated
the national executive meeting at the party’s headquarters, Harvest House,
with heated debate raging on for more than two hours.

The issue
further generated intense heated debate at Wednesday’s four-hour national
council meeting, although officials eventually adopted the confirmation
resolution despite growing discontent among party supporters.

Under the
confirmation process, MPs have to get a two thirds approval rating by party
members in their respective constituencies for them to stand on the party’s
ticket.

Failure to garner the two thirds approval would condemn affected
legislators to open primary elections.

The tense, no-holds-barred
Tuesday meeting, chaired by party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, heated up after
the party’s top 11 who make up the 12 member standing committee declared the
door for open primaries was fairly closed, in a move seen as a ploy by MDC-T
bigwigs to ring-fence their seats in the face of challenge from ambitious
upstarts.

This immediately drew the ire of the MDC-T Supporters’ Forum, a
loose union of MDC-T district executives disgruntled over their party’s
selection process for the forthcoming polls which is demanding open
primaries. The Forum has pledged to campaign for independent candidates if
the party does not reverse its decision.

However, Biti said the
national council unanimously adopted the candidate selection
procedure.

He defended the confirmation process saying it was democratic
as party members in a constituency have to confirm sitting MPs by two thirds
to avoid primary elections.

“The confirmation process is not a new
thing; it has been in the constitution since 2000,” Biti told a press
conference on Wednesday. “It’s a democratic process where district
assemblies will be checking on the performance of sitting
MPs.”

Sources said there were also fears of intra-party violence in
constituencies the MDC-T has no sitting MPs as prospective candidates slug
it out in open primaries.

The national council resolved members with
less than five years in the party are not eligible to contest primary polls
— a move seen as further protecting incumbent MPs.

There was also a
suggestion MPs who received vehicles from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
should not be eligible to stand, but this was hastily quashed.

The MDC-T
Supporters’ Forum has warned the party’s attitude regarding primary
elections was undemocratic and would be fiercely resisted.The Forum is set
to hold its first consultative meeting mid-January in 2013 in Harare with
representatives from Bulawayo, Masvingo, Mutare, Chitungwiza and
Harare.

MDC-T leaders are accused of insisting on the confirmation
process to shrug-off fierce competition from young turks vying for
parliamentary seats.

Youth treasurer Mukombwe Dube has reportedly set his sights on
the Binga South seat currently held by Gabuza, while youth organising
secretary Mpumelelo Ndlovu and his deputy Happymore Chidziva are eyeing the
Insiza South and Redcliff seats currently under MDC and Zanu PF
respectively.

“The consultative meeting will discuss strategies to resist
the undemocratic move of confirming sitting MPs, councillors and senators of
the party,” read a statement by the Forum. “The structures which the party
says select the candidates comprise people chosen by sitting MPs,
councillors and senators.”

“The system will never be accepted by voters.
They crafted the (MDC-T) constitution to protect their positions. How can
200 people have a mandate to choose a candidate among themselves to
represent a constituency with thousands of voters?”

The Forum has
called for a review of the party’s constitution saying it should be reviewed
to tally with the current thinking of supporters. It insists people should
be free to elect a candidate of their choice at all times.

The
supporters lashed out at Tsvangirai for failing to defend the people’s
interests for which he claims to stand for.

“In 2005 when Professor
Welshman Ncube pulled out of the MDC over the disagreement on whether to
have a senate or not, he (Tsvangirai) stood firm with the people saying the
economy was too weak to sustain the senate. He said he would remain alone as
long as he was doing what the people wanted. The people supported him
through and through. But this time he will have to choose between what the
people want and the so-called confirmation of sitting MPs which the people
do not want.”

Ex-Zipra
fighters rebuff Chiwenga

ZIMBABWE Defence
Forces commander General Constantine Chiwenga’s spirited efforts to enlist
war veterans to campaign for Zanu PF ahead of crucial elections expected
next year is facing insurmountable resistance from former Zipra commanders
whose contribution has been identified as crucial if Zanu PF is to do well
in Matabeleland.

Report by Herbert Moyo

Zipra was the armed wing
of PF Zapu which, together with Zanu PF’s Zanla, waged a protracted
guerrilla war against the country’s colonial rulers.

As in 2008 when it
embarked on a brutal campaign to rescue President Robert Mugabe in the
presidential election run-off after losing the initial poll, the military
has again taken an active interest in next year’s crucial elections and is
already on the ground campaigning for Mugabe and Zanu PF.

During the 2008
elections, Zanu PF failed to garner a single seat in Bulawayo, making it the
only province where it was whitewashed.

Chiwenga has taken it upon
himself to mobilise war veterans to assist Zanu PF in exchange for lump sums
of money, among other benefits.

Top commanders of the defence forces have
been campaigning for Zanu PF in Manicaland and Masvingo in a move widely
seen as a desperate attempt to protect the vast wealth they have accumulated
under Mugabe’s rule.

Highly placed sources revealed that Chiwenga
recently engaged members of the Zipra command at One Brigade Headquarters in
Bulawayo — his second such meeting this year — to drum up their support for
Mugabe and Zanu PF.

However, most former Zipra commanders snubbed him,
believing he only wanted to use their influence to galvanise other ex-Zipra
cadres to campaign for Zanu PF for elections despite the fact that they have
been sidelined since Independence in 1980.

Sources said Chiwenga’s
tactic was to begin the meeting by attempting to pacify the ex-Zipra
combatants by acknowledging they had played a pivotal role in the liberation
struggle just like their Zanla counterparts. He said the country’s history
books must be re-written to accurately reflect and recognise Zipra’s
role.

Most Zipra cadres are bitter that the role they played in the
bitter war waged to liberate Zimbabwe has been downplayed while that of
Zanla has been exaggerated.

Chiwenga emphasised the supremacy of the
War Veterans Act as opposed to the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans
Association (ZNLWA) which is a voluntary organisation formed in 1990 to
cater for the welfare of ex-combatants, and has always been led by lower
level former guerrillas.

“In urging us to campaign for a Zanu PF victory,
he told us that in terms of the (War Veterans) Act, ex-combatants are a
reserve army which can be called upon at any time to perform duty,” said a
source who attended the meeting. “To our understanding, that means having us
endorse Mugabe’s candidature as he is our commander-in-chief and also
campaigning for him.”

Only three former commanders of the Zipra command,
two of them being Jack Mpofu and another identified only as Sigoke or
Mlotshwa, bothered to attend.

Those who boycotted were reportedly angered
by Chiwenga’s failure to address crucial issues of their welfare and
compensation for properties confiscated in 1982 after the alleged discovery
of arms caches at Zapu farms.

Chiwenga first met former Zipra cadres at
Imbizo barracks, just outside Bulawayo two months ago, but failed to address
these issues.The former fighters were also peeved by apparent attempts to
divide them for maintaining loyalty to their former commanders, especially
Dumiso Dabengwa, and refusing to obey Zanu PF leaders.

Those that
boycotted the meeting also charged that Chiwenga was trying to sow discord
within their ranks after some of them attended the meeting.

“The two who
attended are selling out to Chiwenga,” said one source. “In fact, Mlotshwa
is related to Vice-President John Nkomo and is one of the ex-Zipra leaders
Chiwenga is luring into his corner.”Contacted for comment, former Zipra
supremo Dabengwa was evasive, referring all questions to “Richard Dube, one
of the Zipra commanders who attended the meeting”.

“I believe they
(those who attended the meeting) also discussed the revival of the War
Veterans Board, but l don’t want to jeopardise that by commenting,” Dabengwa
said.

“We issued a
press statement a few weeks ago as part of our attempts to say ‘hands off
our members’ and (to) stop him (Chiwenga) from proceeding to Gwanda where he
wants to go and meet with our cadres,” said one former Zipra commander on
Tuesday. “He has planned these whirlwind tours across the length and breadth
of Matabeleland and in fact, he will be heading to Lupane under the guise of
opening a mine when in reality he wants to meet with our
members.”

Companies linked to the military are involved in various
lucrative but shady mining ventures, including diamond mining, with the most
recent venture being the US$2 billion coal and methane gas project between
Oldstone Investment and Shan Don Sunlight Energy of China in Gwayi,
Matabeleland North.

Bulawayo has over the years been the epicentre of discontent
against Zanu PF rule with its populace complaining about
marginalisation.This has been exacerbated by the perennial water problems,
the Gukurahundi massacres in which about 20 000 people were killed in
Matabeleland and Midlands, and de-industrialisation, among
others.

Zec
cannot deliver free and fair elections: ZDI

THE Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (ZDI) has called for the inclusive
government to immediately take measures to demilitarise the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (Zec) secretariat to restore its independence for it to
credibly run crucial elections set for next year.

Report by Staff
Writer

In a report released this week the ZDI, a local public policy
think-tank, contends an unreformed Zec secretariat, as currently composed,
cannot deliver free and fair elections.

The report says the current
Zec composition provides an opportunity for powerful political forces to
manipulate popular influence through institutionalised mechanisms and
political strategies.

“We call upon Sadc to urge the inclusive government
of Zimbabwe to, as part of the elections roadmap, ensure fresh recruitment
of Zec employees and to ensure they have no connections to the security
sector,” reads the report.

“This includes recalling all military and
security agents, retired and serving, in Zec and starting an open and
transparent recruitment process,” it reads.

In a bid to resolve the
country’s protracted political stalemate, political parties agreed to a raft
of reforms which would pave way for free and fair elections, and the
revamping of Zec is one of the major reforms that has to be done before
elections.

According to the ZDI, a credible and impartial Zec is a
critical factor in attempts to deliver a democratic electoral process,
outcome and consequently a smooth transfer of power in Zimbabwe.

‘Zim
headed for food crisis’ government

COMMERCIAL Farmers Union’s president Charles Taffs has castigated
government for failing to come up with clear-cut funding for agriculture,
saying the nation was headed for another food crisis as the new farming
season has begun with nothing to show farmers are ready.

Report by
Staff Writer

In an interview with the Zimbabwe Independent, Taffs said
this season the state of preparedness of farmers is the worst at a time the
country is likely to receive good rains.

“The state of preparedness
of the farmers is the worst in the history of Zimbabwe because government
has failed to put in place mechanisms to ensure farmers get funding,” Taffs
said.

Over the last decade Zimbabwe has been unable to produce enough
cereals to meet national requirements. The country has been relying on grain
imported by government, aid agencies and the private sector to cover the
deficit. Recently the World Food Programme said about two million people
will require food aid in 2013.

However, the production shortfall was
mainly attributed to the combined effects of adverse weather, high costs and
limited availability of agricultural inputs on the formal
market.

Taffs said this season government, which has always blamed
drought, will have no excuse for food shortages in the country.

“It
has always been like this every season for the past 12 years and now there
is hope of enough rains, we will see what the government will say led to the
food crisis,” he said.

“The government is failing to deal with
fundamental issues of funding because of lack of proper land tenure. The
farmers cannot access funding because their land is dead capital,” he
said.

In 2012, Zimbabwe had to import up to 300 000 tonnes of maize from
Zambia to feed millions of its citizens who were facing
starvation.

However, the bulk of the imported maize supplied to the
hungry Zimbabweans came from former white commercial farmers evicted during
the 2000 chaotic land invasions, and now farming in Zambia.

Zim
struggles to contain primitive diseases

THE
year 2012 has come and nearly gone. And 34 years after the Alma-Ata
declaration on health, Zimbabwe is still struggling to contain primitive
diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

Report by Elias
Mambo

The Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 emerged as a major milestone of
the 20th century in the field of public health, and it identified primary
healthcare as the key to the attainment of the goal of health for
all.

However, besides being a signatory to the health declaration and
contrary to the hope that was raised by the formation of the current
inclusive government in 2009, Zimbabwe has again dismally failed to contain
the maternal mortality rate which has remained very high at 790 per 100 000
live births, compared to 390 in the 1990s, which means eight women die every
day while giving birth.

In addition, 100 children between 0 and five
years die every day, mainly due to preventable diseases, and around
one-third of them are stunted. The health sector has remained arrested in a
time machine where donor-funded drugs are available but service delivery
continues to decline due to understaffing and poor remuneration.

Only
a decade ago, Zimbabwe’s public health system was ranked among the best in
sub-Saharan Africa. But just like the rest of Zimbabwe’s economic and social
fabric, the health delivery system has frighteningly deteriorated.

The
health sector received a major boost in February this year when the United
Kingdom announced a contribution of £74 million (around US$120 million) to
support maternal and child health.

Around US$80 million is earmarked for
supporting the Health Transition Fund (HTF), an innovative multi-donor fund
launched in November 2011 and managed by Unicef.

Following the
formation of the coalition government, the National Health Strategy for
Zimbabwe was adopted. This was a five-year health sector recovery plan,
which sought to reverse the decline in the performance of the country’s
health delivery system, especially as it impacted on universal access to
primary healthcare by vulnerable populations.

The goals of the plan
included tackling levels of health financing and thus improving access to
basic medical equipment and essential medicines; taking steps to attract and
retain health workers in the public health sector and laying the foundation
for an investment policy to fund the rehabilitation and development of the
health services infrastructure.

Zimbabwe has enjoyed the temporary
delirium in which changes within the health sector were notable as drugs
were donated by the international community and hospitals revived their
day-to-day activities.

However, a shortage of nurses and doctors is
throwing the one-time beacon of health in Africa into the doldrums
again.

According to a report presented by the Portfolio Committee on
Health and Child Welfare chaired by former Health minister and Zanu PF
Murehwa North legislator, David Parirenyatwa, there is a decline in service
delivery especially on child health.

The report also states that as a
result of the dire situation in the health sector, Zimbabweans continue to
suffer from a high burden of diseases and conditions, most of which are
preventable and treatable.“Child health status indicators are worsening with
infant mortality and under-five mortality rising from 53% to 77 per 1 000
live births in 1994 to 67 and 94 per 1 000 live births respectively in
2009,” the parliamentary report said.

A local analyst, Alexander
Rusero said despite the political bickering in the inclusive government, the
health sector is improving.

“While there is too much politics in the
country, the health sector is showing signs of revival as compared to the
past two decades,” Rusero said.

“From 2005 to 2009, taking your son or
wife to a local hospital was like giving them a death sentence because you
knew they might not return alive,” he said.

Rusero said the only
stumbling block is on the staffing side which has resulted in all state-run
hospitals being seriously understaffed and
under-remunerated.

Community Working Group on Health executive
director Itai Rusike concurs but adds there is still a long way to go in
terms of recruitments.

“The health sector is reviving from a decade of
decline but we are very slow in terms of meeting the Abuja target in which
African countries agreed to commit 15% of their total budget towards
health,” Rusike said.

“There is need to revamp the infrastructure in all
major hospitals and aim to reduce maternal mortality so as to achieve our
millennium development goals,” he said.

Rusike also said government
and all stakeholders need to focus on improving the accessibility of ARVs
which are only accessible to 40% of HIV-positive patients as the rest
continue to suffer without proper medication.

He also said the shortage
of doctors in Zimbabwe has reached crisis levels with the country having
only 21% of the required medical practitioners.

Why
elections are unlikely in 2013

The
expectation ever since the inauguration of the Global Political Agreement
(GPA) on September 15, 2008 and its Government of National Unity (GNU) on
February 14, 2009 that harmonised elections would be held sooner rather than
later, has been integral to the Zimbabwean political psyche.

Opinion by
Ibbo Mandaza

Yet it is also an expectation that has become increasingly
illusive, even as the political leadership — particularly President Robert
Mugabe — vows, annually since 2009, that elections will be held with or
without a new constitution.

So, if nothing appears certain about the
date of the next election it is, regrettably, also this political
uncertainty, generated by such endless talk about an event that should
otherwise restore confidence about the future of Zimbabwe, which constitutes
a major drag on an economy which saw phenomenal growth of over 9,5% in 2009,
but now stalling to well below 5% in 2012.

The media in particular, but
also academic analyses in general, have failed so far to probe behind the
political rhetoric that has become a unique feature of Zimbabwean society,
so as to identify and explore the dynamics and realities that might inhere a
better tomorrow.

At the outlet, therefore, are at least four reasons why
there will be no harmonised elections in 2013: three of these relate to the
processes antecedent to such elections; and the fourth concerns Zimbabwe’s
crisis of succession which cannot be resolved by a poll but through a
Transitional Mechanism until the country is ready for a meaningful
contest.

All this notwithstanding Mugabe’s recent assertions: in October,
that elections will be held by March 2013, “with or without a new
constitution”; at the opening of parliament on November 15, that the nation
must prepare for the event in 2013; and finally, at the Zanu PF national
conference on December 9, his threat that he could at any time dissolve
parliament and announce the date of the election in 2013.

First, and
most obvious, the fading time-line to 2013: the referendum on the draft
constitution, an event that should have come and gone in October or November
this year, is now more likely in May or June than February or March 2013;
and excluding the other three factors to be outlined herein as rendering
elections not possible in 2013, the earliest they could be held in October
2013, that is within four months of the dissolution of parliament on June
29, 2013, the latter being the date of the so-called “automatic dissolution”
after five years since the last harmonised elections in March
2008.

Second, and less obvious given the dust generated by political
rhetoric and even euphoria about a constitution-making exercise now almost
complete, is the process likely to be as long-drawn out as was the case in
Kenya where it has taken almost two years of synchronising the old laws with
the new constitution.

The constitutional lawyers on both sides (Zanu
PF and MDCs) of the political spectrum are acutely aware of this requirement
as part and parcel of any constitution-making exercise, but dare not speak
out loud on it, for fear of being labelled saboteurs of an election mode
which, by the look of things, is unable to convert itself into the required
frenzy.

Behind the scenes, however, there are those quiet murmurs of
acknowledgement: a Zanu PF big wig thinks at least six months will be
required to synchronise the current laws with the new constitution; and an
MDC-T counterpart, who has just returned from a visit to Kenya, is convinced
the process will exceed 18 months, at best!

Third, and always to be
remembered, are the principles which have become virtual gospel in Sadc’s
mediation of the GPA, as highlighted by the Sadc Troika on December 9, 2012,
almost as if to challenge Mugabe’s assertions at the Zanu PF’s conference in
Gweru on the same day: namely, that there can be no elections until a
referendum on the draft constitution and the completion of the reform agenda
as stipulated by the GPA and its related road map.

Admittedly, the debate
on what constitutes the “minimum conditions” for “free and fair elections”
has become confused and even open-ended as the GPA itself has unfolded and
as the MDC is almost hand-in-glove with Zanu PF in the state.

Now,
depending on the political occasion, the MDC-T in particular vacillates
between an almost religious adherence to the demand for reforms as a
precondition for elections, and an acceptance of Mugabe’s gauntlet for polls
in 2013.

The question is whether MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, and
Welshman Ncube (MDC-N), too, will join Mugabe and Zanu PF in defying Sadc
over a principle that is the cornerstone of the GPA and therefore the raison
d’etre of the mediation exercise, or convince South Africa and the regional
body that all is clear for free and fair elections in 2013.

My bet is
that the MDC as a whole will err on the side of caution, choosing, in the
final analysis, to play it safe in the arms of Sadc and South Africa in
particular, for fear of a repeat of 2008.

In which case, Mugabe’s threat
of going ahead with elections, with or without a new constitution and
related reforms, can at best be a lame one, not least because the old man is
hardly in a position to spoil for a fight against his own regional body, a
re-elected President Jacob Zuma (pictured left), and an international
community he has already begun to court and re-engage as part of his
legacy-building in the final years of a long but tumultuous political
career.

And this is precisely the fourth point I wish to highlight,
namely, that Mugabe cannot possibly reconcile an election agenda in 2013,
with all its potential for a bruising campaign and violence on the one hand,
and, on the other, the need to leave behind him a legacy at least favourable
enough to redeem some of those unsavoury parts of his political life, while
simultaneously bequeathing Zimbabwe a new constitution, a peaceful
transition from his era to the next, the foundations of sustainable economic
growth and development, and a return to the international community of
nations.

Therefore, the constitution-making exercise in particular
will have provided a convenient platform from which to launch his
legacy-building programme.

Perhaps this explains why Mugabe salvaged an
exercise that had taken three years, gobbled almost US$50 million and was
about to crash in failure.

So, almost out of the blue, the Copac saga was
rescued in August 2012 and, notwithstanding much grandstanding and
much-a-do-about nothing on the part of all concerned, a Second
All-Stakeholders’ Conference was successfully held three months later in
November, and, by all accounts, Mugabe, under the garb of the “Principals”,
had pulled it off, almost single-handedly. Our suspicions, as long ago as
August, that a deal had been done dusted through the agency of Mugabe
himself, will be confirmed next Monday December 24, as the completed draft
constitution is unveiled and, perhaps, even the date of the referendum
announced.

The dominant role of Mugabe and his fellow Principals
(gradually including Ncube) cannot be ignored: it has tended to belittle the
function and status of the legislature, simultaneously transcending party
political boundaries in reality, and rendering, not only the referendum but
even the election contest itself, almost superfluous.

This new
institution of the “Principals” is, of course, a child of the GPA/GNU; and
if Mugabe in particular has expressed misgivings about the GNU, he appears
to regard the “Principals” as an exception, certainly something that could
be a useful factor in the Transitional Mechanism which is proposed
below.

In the meantime, it is an institution that has created a level of
national consensus that now stands inconsistent with an election contest in
2013. This is why, even now, election talk is so shrill and, with the
passage of weeks and a referendum more based on national consensus than
contest, will become increasingly discordant with public opinion so
suspicious and fearful of elections.

So, who really wants elections
in 2013, quite apart from the issue of their feasibility given what has been
outlined in the foregoing?I have intimated why, all being equal, Mugabe
would prefer to pursue his legacy-building programme even, as appears to be
the case so far, he is not aware that this – and the institution of
“Principals” – could be undermined by an election in 2013.

Then there
is also the age factor (89 in 2013!) which should be an inhibiting factor;
and I have to wonder whether those who fete and declare him so loudly as the
“sole candidate”, almost ad infinitum, do so genuinely or are merely victims
of the crisis of succession in the former liberation movement. Whatever the
case, it does not make sense to want to subject an old man to the vagaries
and risks of a bruising contest and thereby deprive him of a
morecongenial and comfortable exit from public life.

Certainly, many
a Zanu PF stalwart, including ministers and politburo members, quietly
confide that it would be better and more meaningful to have the harmonized
elections only after the old man has made his exit and a new platform
established for the party.

Likewise, Tsvangirai hardly exhibits an
appetite for elections in 2013: he has his own personal problems which
should make him less than confident about an easy run at the polls, not to
mention a fractious party that is also gripped by its own version of a
crisis of succession; and many in MDC-T argue openly about the need to delay
the date for elections, well beyond 2013, at least until time has taken care
of all the attendant problems in the party.

The article by Tony
Reeler and the arguments borrowed from Derek Matyzsak suggest a legal and
constitutional rationale for avoiding elections in 2012 and for the kind of
GNU II which I recommended earlier this year (“Zimbabwe 2012: Another GNU?”,
Zimbabwe Independent, February 16, 2012 ). But the main reasons why there
could be no elections in 2013 relate mainly to the processes attendant to
the constitution-making and reform exercise, a process that is likely to
take at least 18 months after the charter is taken through the referendum
and adopted by parliament in May/June 2013.

Such a programme would
include the outstanding reform agenda as stipulated in the GPA, especially
the Restoration of National Institutions and a well-designed Economic and
Social Recovery Programme.

But there is also the problem of the crisis of
succession in Zimbabwe, a matter which can be resolved only with the managed
and amicable exit of incumbents.

Zimbabweans need to be more
resourceful and imaginative than merely resign to the provisions of statutes
as if the latter are cast in stone. The dissolution of parliament when its
life comes to an end in June 2013 need not mean an imminent
election.

Instead, a proclamation could establish a new deadline (say 18
months to 24 months hence) for harmonised elections in 2015, after the
constitution-making process is completed comprehensively and likewise the
other reforms. A Transitional Government, or GNU II, under the leadership of
the president and his Principals (including Ncube) and a selected team of
not more than 18 members of cabinet, would steer the country during that
period until the date of the election in 2015.

The end justifies the
means!

Ibbo Mandaza is a Zimbabwean academic, author and publisher. He is
currently the convenor of the Sapes Trust’s Policy Dialogue Forum.

The
good, the bad and the ugly of 2012

THE year
has come to a close with drama that would make another cool Western flick in
the league of legendary director Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the
Ugly.

Marriages that would never be; plots to stop the premier’s union
with his sweetheart; another bank closure, President Robert Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai teaming up to ensure Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara remains a principal in the inclusive government while the
legitimate leader of the MDC, Welshman Ncube, remains just that, despite a
Sadc resolution confirming him as a principal. Read on:

February- Nssa takes over RMB and Afre.An age
clause seeking to limit the age of a president to 70 in the draft
constitution is seen targeting Mugabe ( 88 at the time) from running as
president.

Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) nearly lose its Bulawayo
Rainbow Hotel after CBZ Bank Ltd sent a letter of demand over a US$2,5
million facility which matured in January.

April - Former Murray
& Roberts (M&R) Zimbabwe CEO Canada Malunga, Paddy Zhanda,
high-flying South African executive Sam Sithole, and Michael McCulloch
acquire M&R Zimbabwe through Zumbani Capital, the consortium that bought
a 47% stake.April – Afre Corporation says it will explore a legal route to
recover US$1,3 million the company lost in a scrip lending deal that went
bust during former executive chairman Patterson Timba’s
administration.

June – TN Bank announces plans to list separately on
ZSE.KINGDOM Financial Holdings Ltd reaches an agreement with Mauritius-based
financial services group AfrAsia Bank Ltd and pledges to invest US$9,5
million for a 35% equity in the group. The investment completes the
recapitalisation of KFHL and paves the way for the group to accelerate its
strategic initiatives to consolidate the operations of its key
subsidiaries.

October - The Federal High Court of Nigeria hands down judgment
in favour of Econet in the dispute with Bharti Airtel
Nigeria.

December – Zanu PF gives up on all but two contentious issues in
the draft constitution.PPC’s subsidiary Portland Holdings announces
plans to invest at least US$200 million towards construction of a new cement
plant in Rushinga, Mashonaland Central.

June - Another bank bites the dust. An investigation into the
operations of Interfin Banking Corporation unearths wholesale looting that
left the bank reeling from non-performing insider loans of US$60 million,
poor corporate governance and general abuse of depositors’ funds by the
bank’s shareholders –Farai Rwodzi, Tim Chiganze and Jerry
Tsoodzai.

July – THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe raises minimum capital
requirements for banks tenfold to US$100 million in a bid to protect
depositors’ funds.

July – Officials from the Ministry of Lands and its
lands inspectorate department as well as people believed to be members of
the Zimbabwe National Army occupy part of CFI Holdings’ prime farm — Glenara
Estates.

December- Tawanda
Nyambirai steps down from the board of Econet as chairman.

The
Ugly

February – Kereke, who was a close confidant of Gideon Gono, makes
sensational claims that he did the bulk of academic work for the central
bank’s chief’s doctoral degree and threatens to have Gono stripped of his
PhD. He also accuses Gono of looting over US$6,5 million and gold from the
RBZ at a time when Zimbabweans were reeling from extreme
poverty.

June – Never rains but pours as Rwodzi’s Eastlea Spar is Shut
Down.

September – Locardia Karimatsenga drags her former boyfriend Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to court and attempts to block his wedding to
Elizabeth Macheka.

Cabinet
scorecard: How the ministers fared in 2012

ZIMBABWE is busy preparing for a constitutional referendum and
make-or-break elections expected next year to end five years of endless
squabbling in the wobbly Government of National Unity.

Staff
reporters

In 2012, parties in the inclusive government bickered over just
about every issue, from the constitution-making process, financing of
agriculture and diamond revenues to indigenisation and the Chisumbanje
ethanol project.

As it carries out an end-of-year introspection of its
performance in 2012, the inclusive government needs to ask itself whose
interests it is serving — is it individual, partisan or the interests of
Zimbabweans as a whole as promised.

In consultation with political
analysts, economists and health professionals, among others, the Zimbabwe
Independent looked at how ministers fared during the year while operating on
shoestring budgets and hostility along party lines.

Below is the
assessment of the performances of some of the ministers. While some
ministers have been visible for the right or wrong reasons, others were
completely invisible like Heneri Dzinotwiyei of Science and Technology,
Paurina Mpariwa of Labour and Social Welfare and Giles Mutsekwa of National
Housing and Social Amenities.

Eric Matinenga – Constitutional and
Parliamentary Affairs. Grade BHe is one of the most principled ministers in
the inclusive government. His stance against machinations by the principals
to hijack the constitution-making process should be commended, although he
eventually lost the battle.

He was brave enough to defy his own
leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, on a matter of principle, which very few
politicians can do. To ensure accountability, Matinenga instituted an audit
of how the Constitutional Development Fund (CDF) was used resulting in a
number of legislators being arrested. However, Attorney-General Johannes
Tomana stopped prosecution after four legislators had been arrested and six
more faced arrest. Matinenga has since proposed a CDF bill to regulate the
fund.

Theresa Makone/ Kembo Mohadi – Home Affairs. Grade FVery few
people have good words for this ministry. Despite a marginal improvement in
the Registrar-General’s Office, the Home Affairs ministry is the citadel of
many of the government’s corrupt practices, with the police force ably
leading the way. Even President Robert Mugabe has blasted our partisan
police force for high levels of corruption, especially traffic officers.
Surveys have shown that the Zimbabwe Republic Police is the most corrupt
police force in the region. The immigration department offers no respite and
every visit there is a test of endurance. The Passport Office is even worse.
Very little in the way of reform or even the pretence of such an exercise
has been attempted by the co-ministers. Get rid of them both!

Priscilla
Misihairabwi – Mushonga – Regional Integration and International Cooperation
Grade C-The ministry’s role remains unclear and critics have questioned its
existence. Misihairabwi-Mushonga is known more for her party work than
government functions. Her push for the one-stop border initiative has shown
that she has the capacity to deliver, but the problem is that she has little
on her plate.

Simbarashe Mumbengegwi – Foreign Affairs DHe
operates like an intelligence operative, when he is supposed to be
articulating the country’s foreign policy. Mumbengegwi has not done enough
to address critical international relations issues, among them sprucing up
Zimbabwe’s poor image, building bridges with countries and critical
institutions hostile to the country. He has only been visible when engaging
the European Union to discuss the lifting of sanctions imposed on Mugabe and
his cronies.

Obert Mpofu – Mines. Grade C+He has presided over
the resurgence of the mining sector. His efforts on the diamond industry
front have not gone unrewarded and have at least given the appearance of a
man with an agenda and iron will. Mpofu and his team have worked hard in the
face of strong opposition from the international community against the sale
of Marange diamonds on humanitarian and conflict grounds. He ensured the
mines fulfilled all the requirements to certify diamond exports. Last month
Zimbabwe hosted a diamond conference where major players resolved to push
for free trading in Marange stones on the international scene.Mpofu has
also opened up gold mining by allowing unlicensed players to organise
themselves and get licences as artisanal miners. His department has also
mobilised funds to support small-scale players. However, allegations of
sleaze have tainted an otherwise decent balancing act. Were it not for these
allegations, he would have been one of the top ministers this
year.

Walter Mzembi – Tourism and Hospitality. Grade A-He has managed
to rise above identity politics and displayed a national character, not
common in Zimbabwe politics. For instance, he fought army generals and his
Zanu PF peers, most of whom are his seniors in his Masvingo province, over
the invasion of the wildlife-rich Save Conservancy. Tourism is on the rise
and the hosting of UNWTO general assembly has epitomised how he has
performed, aided by few resources handed to him. Mzembi has also been
instrumental in marketing the country as a safe tourism destination. He also
hosted the Africa Travel Association annual congress in Victoria Falls
earlier this year. Mzembi has led initiatives to broaden Zimbabwe’s tourism
product through the introduction of township and village tourism, among
others. He is working towards a new Tourism Act and new financial standards
for tourism operators. In a merit-based party, he would have been handed a
more demanding portfolio.

Saviour Kasukuwere – Youth Development,
Indigenisation and Empowerment Grade CRabble rouser par excellence. This
man cannot get anything done without first grabbing everyone else’s
attention. He displays a high amount of energy, in contrast to his other
Zanu PF counterparts, and gets the job done none the less, even if opinions
are divided as to the usefulness of the tasks he undertakes. His major task
was to attain at least 51% indigenous shareholding in all sectors of the
economy. He has managed in just a short period to create US$1,8 billion for
the National Indigenisation Economic Empowerment Fund. Kasukuwere has,
however, neglected some key goals like empowering youths to participate in
the mainstream economy through enterprise development, enhancing youth
participation in governance and national development, and increasing
vocational and skills training opportunities.

Tendai Biti – Finance
Minister Grade CIf only Biti could feed 13 million people from two fish and
five loaves of bread. Unfortunately, he can only do so much on a shoe-string
budget. His greatest feat was to minimise government interference in
business in an attempt to allow market forces to correct years of economic
decline. Considerable economic growth has been registered albeit off a low
base. His efforts are hampered by a huge public service bill and an
inability to stimulate growth in the economy using an expansionary economic
policy due to an inability to influence money supply. This year Biti
launched the debt clearance strategy which resulted in the opening up of
some lines of credit from some of the development banks but still the World
Bank and the IMF have not returned to Zimbabwe. He has successfully
introduced reforms in the capital markets, the taxation regime and has
followed instructions from the IMF religiously.

Tapiwa Mashakada –
Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Grade DHe is always out of the
country. Mashakada’s drive for foreign investment has failed but this is not
entirely his fault as this can also be attributed to the country’s bad
image, government’s policy inconsistencies and controversial laws like the
indigenisation policy. He only had two major events this year — the Road
Show to South Africa and the Medium-Term-Plan. The Road Show did not yield
any meaningful investments while the MTP review showed that it was
off-track. His ministry’s programmes at least have the support of the UNDB
and the World Bank and as such give him leverage on crafting economic
development strategies. He is still to push for Bilateral Investment
Promotion and Protection bills in parliament and the amendments to the
Zimbabwe Investment Authority Act.

Elton Mangoma – Energy and Power
Development Grade A-There has been a significant improvement in power supply
under his stewardship. His plan for increasing power generation is credible,
although it is not implementable under the current government. There is
considerable progress in the installation of pre-paid meters. Zesa debts
with regional power companies are being cleared. Refurbishments of power
plants are being done. An agreement with the Zambian government over the
US$70 million legacy debt was reached leading to the conclusion of plans for
the Batoka gorge project which is now going to come on stream. The Zambezi
River Authority has already sent out expressions of interest for the Batoka
project.

Sithembiso Nyoni – Small and Medium Enterprises Grade
EDespite the well-documented role that the small to medium enterprises have
in the growth and employment of a developing country, she has been notably
absent from the front line and nowhere near the debate, leaving the likes of
Kasukuwere and Biti to dominate the discourse.

Nicholas Goche –
Transport and Infrastructure Development Grade DFrom the mishaps of trying
to ban most second-hand vehicles to more laudable initiatives of
rehabilitating the nation’s highways, his performance has been an erratic
one. The near collapse of Air Zimbabwe marked the lowest point of his
ministerial career. However, the minister should be commended for the
re-construction of the Plumtree to Mutare highway which is being done by
Group Five of South Africa.

Welshman Ncube – Industry and Commerce Grade
CHe gave an ‘OK’ performance but could have done better. The negotiation of
the Essar deal was a high point but his internecine fights with Mutambara
seemed to have distracted him from focusing on the revival of industry and
commerce. However, others think that he messed up on the Zisco Essar deal
when assets were sold for billion less than their true value, hence the
ongoing squabbles. He has also been continuously whining about dearth of
investment in Matabeleland which may be good for scoring political points
but if one presides over the responsible ministry, then they ought to have a
credible plan. His industrial policy launched in 2012 has been discounted as
he is accused of not consulting widely enough.

Nelson Chamisa – Min
of Information Communications Technology Grade D His polished exterior
coupled with Clintonesque eloquence masks a rather ordinary performance in
his four years serving as the youngest minister in government. Sympathisers
may argue that the shrinking of his portfolio may have left him with a
smaller stage to perform, but the reasoning should be, fewer duties, greater
performance. His greatest undoing seems to be a tendency to wildly
over-promise and over-rely on his oratory skills to prop up his
popularity.

Paurina Mpariwa – Labour and Social Welfare. Grade FFour
years after the country adopted a multiple currency regime, companies are
showing signs of stability and growth, but workers still have to make do
with low wages which are sometimes way below the poverty datum line. One
would expect Mpariwa to be making a lot of noise and yielding results, but
not her. Apart from the slave wages, work-related accidents are on the rise
with the National Social Security Authority revealing that there had been 16
deaths and close to 5 000 work-related accidents as companies ignore safety
procedures.She has failed to crack-down on Chinese companies cited as
major perpetrators of work-related safety crimes. Her only achievement was
the enactment of the Older Persons Act.

Lucia Matibenga – Public
Service Grade FFor a trade unionist of her calibre, one would have expected
her to do more to improve the working conditions of civil servants. Save for
capacity building workshops and salary realignments by insignificant margins
in the current year, civil servants still earn below a living wage and are
struggling to make ends meet. The civil service audit that gobbled a lot of
government and donor funds is yet to bear fruit as ghost workers remain on
the payroll. Key government jobs in the health sector, such as nursing have
remained frozen despite a huge demand for such services.

Joel Gabbuza
Gabuza – Public WorksGrade CGabuza has been silent, perhaps because it’s
difficult to separate his portfolio from that of the Ministry of Transport
and Infrastructure as well as that of National Housing.The ministry’s
half year provincial report indicates it has almost completed construction
of houses at the Zimbabwe School of Mines in Bulawayo, construction of flats
at Chitungwiza Hospital as well as construction of new hostels at Midlands
State University. The ministry has also completed construction of a US$1
million mechanical workshop at Kwekwe Polytechnic College and has just
commenced construction of a US$1,8 million Masvingo records office. He has
failed to maintain government buildings most of which are in an appalling
state with lifts and toilets not functioning.

David Coltart – Education,
Sports and Culture Grade B+Education was a troubled ministry prior to the
GNU but has greatly improved. Coltart has managed to stay above politics and
concentrated on national issues. He remained focused on his duty to bring
sanity into the education sector affected by decades of economic decline.
There has been an increase in the number of teachers who deserted their
posts years ago returning to the profession. However, political polarisation
remains a hindering factor in achieving his set objectives. He has pushed
for textbook donations to such an extent that the current ratio is 1:1 in
all major subjects at both primary and secondary levels across the country.
However, lack of interest and poor efforts in sport development are in stark
contrast to his good performance in the education portfolio. He has
displayed very little oomph in solving many of the abundant challenges
bedevilling sport, especially the most popular sport, football. But his
efforts on the cricket front are notable.

Joseph Made – Agriculture
and Mechanisation Grade Grade FHe has forgotten his job. There is no real
agriculture policy and the country will continue begging for food. They have
been blaming drought for food shortages but now the rains are here and the
farmers are unprepared because the minister slept on duty. The UN has
projected that in 2013 about two million Zimbabweans will require food
assistance because of the expected shortages due to poor production
levels.

Herbert Murerwa -Lands and Rural Resettlement Grade FHis
success this year hinged on the ability to carry out a land audit as per GPA
requirement. Tackling the contentious multiple farm ownership by top Zanu PF
officials would have redeemed his tattered image. Farmers cannot access
loans because the land is dead capital due to lack of proper land tenure.
Funding is not available and the minister has done nothing to make sure that
the resettled farmers can use their land as security in order to get
funding. However, Murerwa has not been well for a long time.

Patrick
Chinamasa – Justice and Legal Affairs Grade CHe maintains consistency and
remains strong when pushing for his agenda, for example, his role in
ensuring Copac produced a draft constitution despite internal pressure from
his Zanu PF party and being labelled a sell-out. He steered the Human Rights
Commission Act and the Electoral Amendment Act, but failed to deliver on the
Posa Amendment Bill, which was eventually introduced as a private members
bill. He introduced the pre-trial diversion programme, which speeds up child
sexual abuse cases. Chinamasa still has to improve on the prison conditions.
While there has been some improvement in dealing with case backlogs, the
minister can do more by pushing the judiciary to conclude trials timeously.
However, the sentiments he aired in his BBC interview that Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai will not be allowed to rule the country by the military
even if he wins the next election will always be a dark cloud hanging over
him.

Webster Shamu – Media, Information and Publicity Grade DShamu
has remained deaf to calls to implement media reforms, opening up the
airwaves and allowing independent broadcasters to function. While new
licences were issued this year to private players, including veteran
journalist Barnabas Thondhlana, Shamu has been found wanting in the
broadcasting sector with only radio licences being issued to Zimpapers and
Supa Mandiwanzira, both of who are linked to Zanu PF. However, Shamu can be
commended for allowing private media to cover state functions, which had
become a preserve of the state-controlled media. He has also allowed foreign
media to cover events in the country. Shamu has organised meetings with
editors from both the private and public media.There were generally
fewer arrests of journalists and media practitioners this year but Shamu
still must repeal the repressive Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act. Threats to editors of private media to report more positively
on Mugabe have damaged his profile.

Emmerson Mnangagwa – Defence Minister
Grade CThere were reports of lawlessness when soldiers disrupted the census
exercise demanding to be included in the enumeration exercise. Overall,
Mnangagwa seems to have contained the indiscipline which was on the rise in
the army due to reported hunger, nepotism and low salaries.He has since
reined-in on army commanders like Major-general Douglas Nyikayaramba, who
said he would not accept an MDC-T election victory. Mnangagwa successfully
completed the construction of the National Defence College in Harare and it
will benefit Zimbabwe and other military and security personnel in the
region.However, Mnangagwa needs to depoliticise the military and turn the
ZDF into a non-partisan professional force.

Heneri Dzinotyiwei –
Science & Technology minister Grade FOne of the forgotten ministers in
the unity government because he seems to be doing nothing. Perhaps he should
consider rejoining the academic world.

Olivia Muchena – Women’s Affairs
and Gender Development Grade CShe continued to push for the uplifting of the
social, economic and political status of Zimbabwean women. Attempts were
made to mobilise society against gender-based violence. Some analysts
credited her ministry with the clause in the draft constitution outlawing
the death penalty for women. However, failure to speak effectively and
assist women survivors of political violence counted against her. She was
probably handicapped in this by her partisan stance given that the alleged
perpetrators of the violence are from Zanu PF. She still needs to deliver on
promises for the para-legal training for women as well as translating the
reproductive and Family Laws Handbook to assist women to know their
rights.

Gorden Moyo State Enterprises and Parastatals Grade EWhile
visible, he is too often seen explaining why public entities are not
performing as expected, or introducing revamped time tables for the
restructuring of the parastatals after the previous one had been made
redundant through non-performance. He has very little to show for his time
in government as public entities have continued to drag down the economy. He
has developed on paper a regulatory framework for state enterprises and
performance based-contracts for the chief executives. The State Enterprises
Corporate Governance code has not yet been implemented.

Sipepa Nkomo
– Ministry of Water Resources Development and Management Grade ENkomo
has shown passion for solving Bulawayo’s perennial water problems and the
fact that the Msthabezi Water Project recently started pumping water to
Bulawayo is commendable. Although it will not solve Bulawayo’s water woes,
it is a step in the right direction.However, he has had his own fair
share of criticism with some accusing him of running the ministry via spirit
mediums and cleansing ceremonies and still we cannot store water. He was
famous for calling for cleansing ceremonies in Gokwe and Mutare claiming
that mermaids were blocking his ministry’s efforts. His ministry has
dismally failed in its mandate to ensure the provision of water to the
residents.

Ignatius Chombo – Minister of Local Government, Urban and
Rural Development Grade DMost local authorities have continued to
struggle to provide basic services such as regular refuse collection, clean
water supply, road maintenance, among many others. Chombo has done little to
ensure they act in the ratepayers’ interest other than meddling for Zanu PF
political gain.Thanks to the minister though, Harare City Council was forced
to stop property attachments in Rugare high density suburb.

Henry
Madzorera – Minister of Health and Child Welfare Grade CThis ministry has
made remarkable strides in the provision of health facilities in the
country. Public health facilities have been improved and most provincial
hospitals have been renovated and services have improved. Drug availability
within most health institutions has also improved over the year. He still
has to work harder to improve treatment of non-communicable diseases such as
diabetes, heart diseases and cancer, which pose a greater threat to
Zimbabweans than HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

Francis
Nhema- Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Grade DThe biggest
blight on the performance of Nhema was his failure to speak out strongly
against the construction of a hotel by Chinese investors at a designated
wetland in Belvedere. Several wetlands in Harare have been under threat
compromising the underground water sources. He has also not been active in
fighting environment degradation caused by mining giants such as the ones in
Chiadzwa. The environmental management laws are not being adequately
enforced and this can be witnessed by the accumulation of refuse in cities
and towns nationwide. He also stands accused of allegedly parcelling out the
lucrative Save Conservancy to army generals and top Zanu PF
officials.

Petrecozim
recycling plant planned

A CONSORTIUM of
Zimbabwean companies has invested US$1 million into a Polyethylene
Terephthalate (Pet) Recycling Company of Zimbabwe (Petrecozim) to recycle
pet bottles into plastic flake for export to China by end of March
2013.

Report by Fidelity Mhlanga

Petrecozim chief operating
officer, Tawanda Masuka, confirmed the company had already identified a site
and was at the stage of completing basic compliance issues with the
Environmental Management Agency and the Zimbabwe Revenue
Authority.

“The site of the plant is in Ardebennie. We are at the stage
of buying the equipment in China after completing compliance issues to
operate within the confines of the law and then delivery and installation
will need about three to four months,” Masuka said.

He emphasised the
new project would bring about a new paradigm shift.“Traditionally, companies
like Megapack process pre-forms and sell to retailers for packing
products.

The duty of Petrecozim will be to pick the used bottles,
recycle, produce flake — a raw material needed by fibre manufacturing
companies. In other countries they do bottle to bottle recycling but we will
be producing flake and exporting it to China — the biggest market for
recycled products,” he said.

The investors also include
plastic converters Mega pack Zimbabwe and Pet pack and leading branding
company Coca-Cola.

“The 10 companies are all equal partners in the
project, each having an equal shareholding of 10%. However, l must emphasise
that these are just inaugural members; membership is still open to other
companies in the Pet value chain like converters, importers, bottlers and
retailers,” Masuka said.

He said Petrecozim would establish pet
collection and baling centres in various cities across the country, tapping
empty pet bottles from vendors, community based organisations, waste
entrepreneurs, waste collectors and complimenting its own collective fleet
facility to fine-tune the project.

“We are going to pay vendors to get
the material. We want it to be sustainable. Ema is also setting up community
groups and we will be happy if a lot of people come and sign in for the
project. It works well when people are working together,” he said.

He
said the project would not duplicate existing efforts and as a strategy they
were engaging companies doing waste collection.

According to Masuka, the
plant will be operating at a capacity of 500 kg per hour. The first stage of
used pet bottle processing will involve the separation of bottles initially
by colour followed by glue and label, residue removal as well as metal
detection. The plant will grind bottles into small particles (flakes) which
will be fed into a sink float separator which will check for non-pet and pet
bottles.

Investors
sceptical of govt guarantee

Having come
from a protracted period of economic shrinkage, both the private and public
sectors have a huge overhang of uncompleted capital projects.

Report by
Collins Rudzuna

In both sectors, debt financing is one of the key ways of
raising money to finance capital projects. Private sector entities have had
some success in raising money both locally and offshore, but the public
sector is lagging behind.

While in other countries bonds are common
conduits for raising debt financing, Zimbabwe’s bond market had all but
dried up.

A recent effort by the Infrastructure Development Bank of
Zimbabwe (IDBZ) to raise US$30 million for Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission
and Distribution Company (ZETDC) counts as one of the first attempts at
issuing a bond in a dollarised Zimbabwe. Sadly, this noble cause was met
with limited success, achieving a subscription rate of just
59,41%.

The most obvious reason the bond issue was under-subscribed is
the limited liquidity available in the market. Households, pension funds and
businesses who normally participate in bond issues are themselves in need of
money and hence incapacitated from investing.

Pension funds could
also not liquidate other asset classes to comply as there are no buyers with
enough liquidity to take the assets on time and at the right
price.

One way of encouraging certain classes of investors to support
public sector debt issues is to set a minimum level of “prescribed assets”
allowed in each portfolio. For the most part pension funds and other
investors who are required to hold prescribed assets are non-compliant due
to limited availability of such assets.

One would have thought they
would therefore have jumped to get their hands on this ZETDC bond. Yet that
was not the case as evidenced by the 59,14% subscription rate.

The
case presented for the bond is a sound one; funding the installation of
prepaid electricity meters in households. Barring unforeseen circumstances,
it is reasonable to assume such a project can generate enough cash flows to
meet interest and capital repayments.

In fact, ZETDC has set aside
cash flows from some of their key clients specifically to service this
bond.

A 10% coupon is also not too bad especially when viewed by
comparison with the bleak stock market performance forecasts for the coming
year. The market’s lack of interest therefore seems to have another
justification other than limited liquidity.

In our view, the
overriding reason why this recent bond issue had limited success, and the
reason why many issues of various short-term bills have failed is that
default risk is still considered high even where there is merit in the
business case.

Normally, a guarantee would offset this effect but it
seems the market just does not have that much confidence in government
guarantee attached to this bond issue and the failed short-term bill
issues.

Government’s credit record is tainted by defaults on funding from
the IMF and World Bank in excess of US$10 billion and, more recently, the
Reserve Bank’s default on gold bonds. As such investors are still uneasy
about default risk.

CBZ’s US$50 million diaspora bond had 85% support
— a success rate far better than the rest despite a relatively low average
yield of 8%.

The CBZ diaspora bond was guaranteed by Afrexim Bank which
made it more attractive to investors. We believe if a reputable
international institution such as Afrexim Bank had been the guarantor in
place of the government for the IDBZ bond, more funds could have been raised
to finance this important infrastructure project.

In fact, it is our
conviction that any future bond issues should have such guarantees if they
are to get widespread support. To be able to offer these guarantees, the
international institutions might require having certain covenants
met.

Depending on what conditions the guarantors set, quasi-government
borrowers like ZETDC would be forced to be more accountable which would
improve their credit rating. Eventually this would benefit them as they
would be able to borrow more cheaply in future.

Official estimates
for public capital expenditure needs run into billions of dollars. Debt
financing is undeniably an important source of the financing necessary for
scaling this enormous financial hurdle.

The US$17,8 million raised for
ZETDC represents the first stumbles of a baby that quickly needs to learn to
run. At this stage guarantees from reputable international entities are
necessary to give comfort to potential lenders.

Admittedly, however,
while they cannot be a permanent solution they are an indispensible
temporary solution. As a permanent long-term solution the country has to
work at restoring confidence in government guarantees on bonds.

To
achieve this of course would entail re-establishing government’s
creditworthiness. In South Africa, Eskom bonds have a government guarantee
but are so popular that 20% of them are held by small investors.

One
key outstanding issue that would put Zimbabwe on the right path is finding a
workable solution to our external debt which is more than US$10 billion —
even higher than our GDP! This may require softening the country’s
reluctance to seek the assistance available to nations classified as
Highly-Indebted Poor Countries.

Additionally, we would have to accept
limitations on how the country’s finances are run, a concession which may be
politically unpopular but necessary. For now, we have to accept that a
government guarantee on any bond has very limited value in the eyes of
investors.

Consumer
price index adopts new weights

The
Zimbabwe National Statistical Office has said the new weights for the
Consumer Price Index will come into effect in January 2013.

Under the
new structure, communication has been given more weights at 3,41 from 0,99
while Furnishing Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance weight was
lowered to 9,91 from 15,11 — a difference of 5,20.

In a statement on the
prices report and the Population census preliminary results, Zimstat
chairman Doug Hoto said the new weights of the CPI and the rate of inflation
were produced using data from the Poverty Income Consumption and Expenditure
Survey 2011/12 as part of a series of products coming from this
survey.

Economists argued the existing methodology was outdated and did
not fully represent current expenditure patterns.

They also argued
some of the components in the basket were obsolete. Housing, water,
electricity, gas and other fuels take up a greater proportion of the average
income, much more than food. However, food and non-alcoholic beverages have
a greater weight of 31,9 against 16,2 for housing, water, electricity, gas
and other fuels.

The changes to the weightings will make the basket
accommodate current happenings. The present basket is made up of 68
commodities under 12 components. New weights will also be assigned to the
commodities to reflect their relative importance in current household
consumption.

Meanwhile, November inflation dropped 0,39 basis points to
2,99% from the October rate of 3,38% after clothing and footwear put
downward pressure on the performance of the CPI.

The downward trend
in inflation is attributed to fluctuations in real demand for goods and
services largely because of low disposable income for the majority of the
public. This is attributed to the persistent liquidity crunch in the economy
resulting in limited cash flows.

Prices of basic goods and services have
generally remained stable owing to lack of room for retailers to raise
prices because disposable incomes are not growing due to the economy’s
illiquidity.The economy is now characterised by stagnant salaries and wages
with minimal adjustments being made as this will leave less money for
working capital.

However Hoto said the country was facing significant
inflationary pressures emanating from poor harvest in the last season,
demand for rental accommodation and increasing utility prices.

Zanu
PF winking in the dark

Following its
conference in Gweru, Zanu PF is running around with its tail up telling the
country it will win the next election.

Zimbabwe Independent
Editorial

“Even the imperialist media is sensing the Zanu PF victory and
they are now hammering the MDC-T as if they are not together in the business
of selling out the country,” the Sunday Mail proclaimed this week. “All the
promises and lies won’t work anymore.”

Who is it that has been making
promises and telling lies, using every conceivable inducement to win votes?
Special funds and provisions have been dangled before a hungry nation while
the language of the past, featuring Western “puppets”, has been taken off
the shelves and dusted down for yet another failed exercise in
deceit.

The hard truth is the country is fed up with empty promises the
former ruling party scrapes together when elections loom. Also conspicuous
are the luxury vehicles that have become the symbols of a corrupt and
compromised political elite.

Equally compromised is a media hijacked
by the state and happy to parrot the songs of praise their political masters
sing.

They childishly talk of “puppets” and pretend the nation is under
threat from imagined “enemies”. It is no coincidence the most reviled
“enemies” are the country’s biggest donors!

They are the ones who
invariably fill the national begging bowl every year because we have
decimated agricultural production by pursuing policies the late Eddison
Zvobgo described as ruinous and racist.

While the state media sees its
duty as misleading the public on the true condition of the nation, the
independent media must counter lies with truth at this critical juncture in
our national life. We are in dire straits because the economy is exploited
by a parasitic class for private benefit.

The whole point of Sadc
intervention was to stabilise our economy and foster
growth.

President Robert Mugabe’s remarks in Gweru on 100%
indigenisation do the absolute opposite. They create a climate of
uncertainty. While Zanu PF is busy sabotaging the economy with voodoo
policies the rest of the region is enjoying investment and
growth.

The big question in all this is: What if Zanu PF does win next
year? What will they do to rescue the economy when they have effectively
destroyed it? And will they be the agents of better governance when they
have been busy arresting and incarcerating people like the Woza women for
exercising their democratic right to assembly.

Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai has of late been showing us his party is certainly not the party
of excellence it claims to be. There has been a singular lack of strategic
thinking in the MDC-T in recent months illustrated by failure to engineer
electoral accommodations.

The MDC-T needs to wake up and exercise
leadership.

Zanu PF is finished as a political party with nothing to
offer Zimbabwe. They are tired yet still obsessed with power. What can they
do now that they had every opportunity to do over the past 30 years? Let’s
help them to go quietly.

Sad
songs and the long wait for better days

IN Africa, there is nothing like music to mirror the hopes,
aspirations, trials and tribulations of a people.

Candid Comment with
Stewart Chabwinja

In the early 1990s Zimbabwe boasted several star
musicians who distinguished themselves with their originality and lyrical
prowess, belting out hit after hit inspired by topical issues. While many of
them have since tragically passed on, many of their messages still resonate
strongly with the nation’s current socio- economic scenario.

Among
the hit-makers who captured the imagination of a population then bearing the
brunt of the country’s ill-fated dalliance with the Economic Structural
Adjustment Programme was one Edwin Hama.

His maudlin lyrics accompanying
simple but catchy tunes would have you instinctively nodding and singing
along, as Hama tackled bread-and-butter issues.

One of his
chart-toppers was Waiting for a New Day which poignantly talked about
someone who had hit hard times and was patiently waiting for the day his
fortunes would change, “wishing and praying for better days to
come”.

Hama died in 2007 aged 40, a broken and reportedly penniless
singer who suddenly vanished from the limelight, never to realise his
“better day”. But his song, Waiting for a New Day, maybe more than any of
his tunes, echoes Zimbabweans’ current predicament as 2012 inexorably draws
to a close.

For most, and despite a pinch of scepticism, the formation of
the inclusive government in 2009 represented the onset of a journey towards
a new day, the first tentative steps towards a new life promising better
conditions.

Zimbabweans dreamt of jobs, better wages, improved service
delivery from the city councils including a consistent supply of clean water
and constant electricity supplies, as the unity government would focus on
improving Zimbabweans’ lives while ceasing the trading of
hostilities.

How wrong they were!

The long wait for better days,
dating as far back as 1998, continues. Zimbabweans, whose reserves of
patience, hope and resilience are legendary, await the long-promised
economic upturn that would spawn the transformation of their lives they so
much crave and deserve. It is this economic upturn that symbolises that “new
day” that would bring jobs, desired service delivery and all attendant
benefits they long for.

But for now, it remains a mirage. Most
Zimbabweans will bid 2012 a less-than- fond farewell, for it represents
another in a growing list of years for which they have precious little to
show. Many have now accumulated so much in their “In Tray” due to the
country’s prolonged socio-economic morass that they have resigned themselves
to life passing them by.

As 2013 beckons, people are apprehensively
wondering what it has in store. For the superstitious, 13 is an unlucky
number.Coincidentally, it is expected to be an election year, with the
referendum on a new constitution and crucial elections supposedly to
terminate the unity government.

Given their experiences in previous
elections in which intimidation, violence and even murder were an integral
part of the electoral process, there is reason to fear, but Zimbabweans will
once again draw on their inexhaustible reserves of
hope.

Incidentally, Hama’s last album was titled Suffer Continue.
Zimbabweans can only hope — as they enter 2013 — that it is not also
prophetic.

Zanu
PF, ANC don’t equate, Cde Moyo

IT was
embarrassing to watch Zanu PF national chairperson Simon Khaya Moyo making a
fool of himself at the African National Congress (ANC) national elective
conference in Mangaung (Bloemfontein) on Tuesday.

Instead of merely congratulating the ANC for electing their top
six leaders, Khaya Moyo subjected the delegates to a tirade in which he
declared that Zanu PF would not tolerate any tampering of the views of the
people in drafting Zimbabwe’s new constitution.

“Our party has always
stood firm in advancing the views of the people,” bellowed Khaya Moyo. “We
believe that agreeing to anything from sources other than the views of the
people is a betrayal of the revolution. We will resist such manipulation at
all cost.”

The ANC delegates were understandably bemused by Khaya Moyo’s
attempt to link Zanu PF’s ruinous policies like land seizures to those of
the ANC.

Khaya Moyo said former liberation movements hold common
perspectives on issues of territorial integrity, sovereignty and the African
goal of political and economic empowerment. However, the two parties could
not be further apart with Zanu PF devoid of any intra-party democracy as
well as a disdain for human rights and the rule of law.

The only
similarity left between Zanu PF and the ANC is they are both former
liberation movements and nothing else.

Attending the ANC gathering
just a week after his own party’s mediocre and uninspiring rubber-stamping
annual conference, Khaya Moyo should have noticed the gaping difference
between the two gatherings.

How could he equate Zanu PF to the ANC,
especially speaking soon after the party’s new top six leadership had been
announced.There was a bruising leadership contest pitting President Jacob
Zuma and his deputy Kgalema Motlanthe for the ANC’s top job.

Can
Khaya Moyo remind us when last President Robert Mugabe was challenged for
the Zanu PF leadership?

Can he tell us the extent to which individuals
who disagree with Mugabe’s views are marginalised or
victimised?

Democracy is alien in Zanu PF which is top-down, elitist and
highly lacks a climate for free, open and critical debate.

Khaya Moyo
should have simply told ANC delegates that Zanu PF will not tolerate
tampering with Mugabe’s views in drafting Zimbabwe’s new constitution,
because that’s essentially what he meant.

The impasse in the
constitution-making process has all to do with whittling down Mugabe’s
imperial powers and not what ordinary Zimbabweans said.

But the clout of
the ANC lies in its branches. Key policies and decisions are often mooted
and determined at this level. It is branch delegates that attend the party’s
national conference and these men and women are the ones who get to decide
on the leadership core that will run the party for the next five years. The
same delegates also formulate the country’s future policy
trajectory.

Former South African president Thabo Mbeki can testify that
power in the ANC is vested in party branches.

After sacking current
President Jacob Zuma as state deputy president in 2005, he also piled
pressure on him to relinquish his role as ANC deputy president. Zuma obliged
but delegates at the 2005 ANC national general council rebelled against
Mbeki and demanded that Zuma be reinstated as party deputy president despite
attempts to keep the issue off the agenda.

Zuma rode on that momentum
which eventually saw him defeating Mbeki at the 2007 conference in
Polokwane.

Now a sitting deputy president just challenged his boss and
although he lost, he still remains deputy president of the country.Now
this is the ANC Khaya Moyo is trying to equate Zanu PF to!

Zanu
PF’s political insanity

Among the many
potentially disastrous resolutions passed at the Zanu PF annual conference
two weeks ago in Gweru, was one that Zimbabwe should forthwith re-introduce
its own currency to function alongside the prevailing multi-currency
regime.

Opinion by Eric Bloch

The enunciated rationale to the
passing of that resolution is that this would counter pronounced illiquidity
severely afflicts the economy.

The illiquidity also has negative
repercussions on the operations of the retail sector, exacerbated by a gross
inadequacy of coinage in circulation, thereby constraining traders from
giving change due to customers when making purchases.

Undoubtedly, in
deliberating upon and passing that resolution the conference delegates had
economic needs in mind, but the foremost motivation was irrefutably to woo
and enhance voter support for the party in the presidential and
parliamentary elections expected in 2013.

So pronounced is the craving
for votes that conference participants gave no consideration whatsoever to
the possible negative consequences of their proposals, which would be of
such magnitude as to outweigh the anticipated benefits.

The harsh
reality is that an overly-precipitous re-introduction of the Zimbabwean
currency would have adverse economic repercussions which would markedly
exceed any benefits.

First, implementing the proposal would have a
deleterious impact on the banking sector, which would in turn rebound upon
the economy as a whole.

Inevitably, based on past experiences between
2004 and 2009 (prior to the introduction of the multi-currency regime),
businesses and individuals will have immense fears that if they deposit in
the banks any of the foreign currencies which constitute the current
multi-currency system, withdrawals thereafter will only be possible in the
Zimbabwean currency, with the foreign currencies deposited being
expropriated by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe or by government.

Those
fears will be provoked by the magnitude of such currency expropriations from
exporters, non-governmental organisations, and other depositors of foreign
currencies during the pre-multi-currency era.

Because of such fears, most
will refrain from using banking services, and instead will secretively hold
foreign currencies in their wardrobes, under their mattresses or in their
business safes. This will exacerbate the considerable inability of
Zimbabwe’s financial sector to provide the essential overdraft and loan
facilities critically needed by almost all private sector entities in the
economy.

Concurrently, the re-introduction of a Zimbabwean currency
prematurely will shatter the already low levels of investor confidence
especially so as the RBZ does not have any meaningful realisable reserves to
support the currency and assure retention of currency value.

While
negatively impacting on the already exceptionally low levels of confidence
of all potential investors, that will be especially so for those outside
Zimbabwe.

The economic morass which has haunted Zimbabwe since 1997,
occasioned by the land expropriations in total disregard of property and
human rights, pronounced political and economic instability,
counter-productive and unjust indigenisation and economic empowerment
legislation, racist diatribes of political leaders and the recurrent
rantings about the alleged “illegal” international sanctions, have all
eroded investor confidence.

As if that erosion did not suffice, now Zanu
PF wishes to worsen it further by re-introduction of a Zimbabwe
currency.

Another inherent risk in Zimbabwe re-instating its currency is
that the continuously bankrupt government will be motivated to print
excessive quantities of the currency, as it did prior to the 2009
demonetisation of the currency. Undoubtedly, as in 2008, doing so will fuel
world-record breaking hyperinflation. That, in turn, will intensify the
great poverty that prevails nationwide, triggering even greater
hardships.

It will also result in further collapses of manufacturing and
other enterprises, and will again emaciate the financial sector. Such
hyperinflation will be a further deterrent to much-needed foreign direct
investment.

Another disastrous result of a premature re-introduction
of the Zimbabwean currency will be the undoubted re-activation of informal
sector currency trading. Illegal trafficking in currency was a major
stimulant of hyperinflation and externalisation of foreign currencies. The
illegal currency market was one of the major causes of the collapse of that
which had, at one time, been a very virile economy.

Ancillary to the
informal money trading operations, once again Zimbabwe will undoubtedly be
the victim of transfer pricing and other unlawful tactics of externalisation
of funds. The result of that action until 2009 was not only another
hyperinflation catalyst, but it also worsened the national balance of trade,
with currency inflows falling far short of outflows.

This resulted in
crippling insolvency, withdrawal of international lines of credit, and
massive reluctance of foreign suppliers to accord credit to their Zimbabwean
customers.

All of these negatives were cavalierly disregarded by the
proponents of the resolution at the Zanu PF conference, who with their
habitual failure to consider any of the consequences of their proposals
(save for expectations that such proposals will increase voter support for
them), recurrently have total myopia as to such adverse
consequences.

Experience has been defined as making a different mistake
next time and, if that is so, then clearly the proponents of the
tsunami-like resolution that Zimbabwe immediately reinstate its own currency
are grossly inexperienced.

One cannot suggest that they “think again”
because, very evidently, they have failed to “think before”.

GNU
II and how to get there

ONE of the
erroneous conclusions to have come from the recent Zanu PF annual people’s
conference held in Gweru is the notion that there was an end point to the
Global Political Agreement (GPA): specifically that there was a two-year
limit to the GPA.

Opinion by Tony Reeler

As Derek Matyszak has
repeatedly pointed out and, as he points out in his recent analysis, the GPA
only provides a start date, which is the signing of the GPA on September 15
2008.

So the problem with the Zanu PF position is that the Government of
National Unity (GNU) continues as the GPA remains in force. The GPA does not
even mention the timing of the next general election and, Matyzsak points
out, there is no requirement that either a new constitution or a referendum
must take place.

Clearly no-one has been reading his analyses of the
GPA over the past two years.

So the big question is: When do the GPA
and the GNU end?

They can end whenever any party decides to withdraw from
the agreement since the two are tied together. This, however, does not apply
to the life of the current parliament which, under the current constitution,
should be five years from the date at which the past election took place and
the president was sworn into office.

This means that the previous
elections were completed after the presidential run-off and the swearing-in
of the president by the Chief Justice, June 29 2008. According to the
constitution, the next elections shall take place no later than four months
after the dissolution of parliament by the president, which means they must
be completed by October 29 2013.

The legal analysis provided by Matyzsak
makes it evident that the current constitution entitles Zimbabweans to
“free, fair and regular elections”, and that presidential and parliamentary
elections should take place at the same time. But Schedule 8 of the
Constitution — which came from the GPA and was part of Amendment 19 — also
provides that the Office of the President “shall continue to be occupied by
President Robert Gabriel Mugabe”.

This was stipulation of the GPA. So if
the GPA continues in force, there is no point in having presidential
elections since the only president can be Robert Mugabe.

So, does the
GPA end with elections, or can it continue in spite of elections? It can be
assumed that it should end with elections, but this is not stated anywhere.
There clearly is a problem here, and Matyzsak points this out and offers a
number of solutions.

Firstly parliament, the president’s term of office
and the GNU could be extended by a constitutional amendment. This could
avoid the need for elections but, as Matyzsak points out, might be
challenged as unconstitutional because the right to vote in elections are a
fundamental right of citizens under the current constitution.

Hence
whilst this may seem a good device for dealing with the current political
stalemate, it may be seen as self-serving for the respective political
parties. However, it is also evident that many Zimbabwean citizens seem to
have little appetite for elections at present, no matter how much they
believe in democracy and the power of elections as a basis for
democracy.

Assuming that bad elections can be avoided,what kind of
constitutional amendment should we have?

One way will be to extend
the life of the current government through an amendment, to hold a
referendum on the new constitution and, assuming that the constitution is
acceptable to the electorate, to use this time to harmonise the relations
between the new constitution and the existing laws, with all the
implications for reform ahead of future elections. This, of course, could be
an exceedingly lengthy process, and it will be crucial to decide in the
amendment to the constitution which will be the necessary reforms. But it
will have to end in an election.

Another approach could be to agree that
there is deadlock, and to agree upon a new “interim” constitution. This is
an approach that has been suggested by others previously, and was the
approach successfully adopted by South Africa in the lead up to its
independent elections in 1994. The critical aspect of this solution will lie
in the nature of the agreement over the nature of this interim instrument as
well as the time frame for the life of the arrangement, and what reforms
must take place during the life of the transition. Again this arrangement
will have to end in an election.

The key issue in the interim before
elections with either of the above two approaches are the reforms
oft-mentioned by Sadc and, critically, which reforms will be necessary to
providing the conditions for elections acceptable to Zimbabweans, Sadc, and
the international community at large.

As has been argued before by the
Research and Advocacy Unit, there needs to be realism in what will
constitute “minimum conditions”, for the reforms necessary for full
democracy may not be essential to the holding of credible
elections.

For example, ensuring that the security forces are wholly
under civilian control is a much shorter process than trying to deal with
the reform of the army, the police and the intelligence
services.

Again, ensuring the media are open is more easily done through
agreements about the governance of the state media and similar bodies than
allowing the setting up of independent radio and television stations: hate
speech and misinformation can be controlled more easily by regulation than
by allowing competing sources of propaganda.

Thus, the key issue for
short-term stability is the question of what will be the nature of the
interim constitution, and here Zimbabwe might take a lesson from South
Africa and the processes that led up the elections in 1994. The quality of
the elections will depend on the quality of the transition rather than the
obverse: bad processes rarely lead to good outcomes.

Tsvangirai
fiddles while Zim burns

Does
this mean his apprenticeship is over? Perhaps now he will stop propitiating
President Robert Mugabe and get on with the serious business of providing
some idea of what the MDC-T stands for?

He should be setting up his stall
and advertising his wares. It’s called politics. Instead, together with
Nelson Chamisa, he has been dodging, ducking and diving the big issues of
the day.

Does anybody know what the voters’ roll looks like?

We
understand from reports, presently unconfirmed, that the great provider of
the Presidential Well-Wishers Scheme is none other than President Obiang,
the ruthless dictator of Equatorial Guinea. If this is the case, why hasn’t
the MDC-T said so? They haven’t said a thing about Zanu PF’s
inducements.

Obiang was on TV this week telling the BBC how much his
people love him. Also featured was his playboy son who owns numerous
properties and vehicles in Paris. Dark glasses for both father and son were
evidently de rigeur.

Deafening silence

On the human rights and
governance side, where is the MDC-T’s voice on the country’s democratic
deficit? At the Gweru conference it was announced that some 200 commercial
farmers face jail for resisting evictions while 198 more are to be
targeted.

It turns out, the Sunday Times reports, that no white farmers
are to remain with land or a business venture. In other words reverse racism
trumps development.

And then we hear from the European Union that all
is well in Zimbabwe. And unsurprisingly Zanu PF can’t believe its luck in
having such a clean bill of health.

Losing the plot

Muckraker
was intrigued by a photo in the Herald last Saturday showing Tsvangirai
chairing a meeting of senior government officials for an update on
preparations for elections.Seated with him was Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa and Zec acting chair Joyce Kazembe.

We were not aware
Tsvangirai had agreed on an election date although at times it seems he will
agree to anything.

But we understand the need by donors and others for
the PM to be seen playing a leading role in electoral preparations.This,
however, is more likely to serve Zanu PF’s purpose than the
MDC-T’s!

Change of tack

Meanwhile Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare
Gumbo conceded his party conference resolutions are sometimes “torpedoed by
the reality on the ground”.

“We cannot just force things through without
considering what the situation demands,” Gumbo told the Daily News on
Sunday. “In some instances, the situation dictates that we change
tack.”

This is more so now that Zanu PF’s nemesis President Jacob Zuma
has clinched the mandate from his party for another term.

We are
likely to see a toning down of the fiery rhetoric from the regime’s attack
dogs.

“Mr Zuma’s duplicity is astounding. With such leaders, Africa is in
mortal danger,” the Sunday Mail’s editorial comment read last year
reflecting Mugabe’s displeasure at Zuma’s mediation.

“We are not a
colony — whether under the direct control of the West or by South African
proxy,” the comment snarled.

However, Zanu PF chairman Simon Khaya Moyo
was anything but hostile at the ANC’s conference in Mangaung describing the
two parties as “comrades-in-arms”.

“We have a common liberation
history and culture. We are one,” Moyo said, a far cry from Zanu PF’s
labelling the ANC leaders as puppets of the West.

Reception was initially
warm as Moyo recounted the two parties’ historically close
relationship.

“But applause from the 4 000-plus audience became
increasingly muted as he delved into the party’s controversial history and
land grabs in the country,” reports the M&G.

Enthusiasm seems to
have cooled when he said his party and the ANC shared common values and
destiny.

Winning strategy

We were delighted to hear, once again,
that Zanu PF is contemplating the reintroduction of the Zim
dollar.

This is good news. Nothing could be more calculated to lose Zanu
PF votes than the prospect of the discredited Zim dollar coming back into
circulation.

Since 2009 the US greenback has provided stability and
predictability, the two things a developing economy needs most.Zanu PF
should declare loud and clear its commitment to the Zim dollar.

It will
be the kiss of death for the old Stalinists in the politburo.

Publicity
monger

Speaking of which, Muckraker can always count on the indefatigable
Kissnot Mukwazhi for a good chuckle. It seems any publicity is good
publicity for the ZDP leader and last week the Financial Gazette published
his letter giving police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri a “thumbs
up” for “his desire to maintain peace in the country”.

“Police
Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri’s statements on anti-violence and
anti-corruption reflect his desire to maintain peace in the country,”
Mukwazhi yelped.

“But it is my humbled (sic) submission that
political leaders should not make irresponsible or stupid utterances
…”

Clearly Cde Kissnot needs a dose of his own advice.

Mathema’s
anathema

Those who know Bulawayo governor Cain Mathema and have worked
with him point to an intelligent and literate politician –– which is more
than can be said for most of his colleagues!

But last week he
displayed a fit of pique which best belonged in the kindergarten.

He
refused to meet visiting US ambassador Bruce Wharton who was on a
familiarisation tour of the second city.

“I do not have him on my
schedule and I do not want to meet him because his government imposed
sanctions on us,” Mathema declared.This came a short while after Wharton had
presented his credentials to President Mugabe last month. Their meeting was
fruitful we understand. He also met leaders of the MDC-T, MDC-N and Zapu. So
Mugabe understood the importance of normalising relations with the United
States but Mathema didn’t?

“If he comes to my office,” Mathema blustered,
“he will have to explain why there are sanctions on Zimbabwe.”

That’s
a no-brainer Mr Governor. Sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe after Zanu PF’s
record of political violence and electoral manipulation. The EU also imposed
sanctions for the same reasons.If Mathema and his colleagues want them
lifted they should remove the reasons for their
imposition.

Elementary mistakes

Last week we were obliged to point
out to a columnist at the Herald that Cecil Square was not named in honour
of Cecil Rhodes (it was Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury).

This week
we have to draw the Sunday Mail’s Nilene Foxworth’s attention to the date of
Ghana’s independence. It was 1957, not 1959.And not many Africans remember
the “resounding welcome” they received on arrival in China!

Instead
of childish accusations of the “imperialist media” “selling out the
country”, the editor should be checking his copy from Nilene and other
solidarity practitioners.

The director of the Royal African Society
is for instance Richard Dowden, not Richard Dowen!

And Marange
Resources should have some idea how to spell “Kimberley”.Marange had a
full-page ad in the Daily News in which Obert Mpofu was laughing his head
off –– “all the way to the bank” as they say. And there was fulsome praise
for the minister’s “determination”.

Rude awakening

Finally we were
amused by Webster Shamu’s vain attempt to turn the Unity Day musical gala
into a Zanu PF event which backfired as he was booed off by
revellers.

In an attempt to defuse the situation, the Standard
reports, Shamu was forced to abandon the Zanu PF chants and rope in the more
popular Dynamos football club.

Shamu got a sobering impression of
what the people think about his party.

Political
highlights of 2012

THE year 2012 marked
the third anniversary of the so-called government of national unity
(GNU).

Report by Herbert Moyo

Uneasy bedfellows in the form of
Zanu PF and the two MDC formations took their acrimonious bickering to yet
greater levels with so many conflicts playing out in the media as the GNU
wobbles on ever closer to finality, with elections expected in
2013.

The Parliamentary Constitutional Select Committee (Copac), in
charge of the constitution-making process, continued with its long-delayed
quest to craft a draft constitution acceptable to the triumvirate, but
incessant squabbling over provisions in the draft, including devolution and
the dilution of presidential powers, ensured the process, initially
scheduled to last 18 months, would spill over into 2013.

Much to the
chagrin of their principals, MDC-T and Zanu PF negotiators connived to sneak
in clauses, first imposing age limits that would have ruled out President
Robert Mugabe from contesting due to old age, following this up with a
controversial running-mates clause. Analysts believe this was an attempt by
the two arch-rivals’ representatives to manage the conflict-ridden
succession issues within their parties, particularly Zanu
PF.

Politically the year was not just about Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and Mugabe and their respective parties; the smaller MDC
formation also made the headlines as the the two professors, Welshman Ncube
and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara took their leadership contest to
court.

For a while it looked like the sun had finally set on Mutambara’s
short but eventful political career after a Bulawayo High Court ruling
ordered him to stop masquerading as MDC leader.

This was soon
followed by a Sadc resolution to recognise Ncube as a political party
principal alongside Mugabe and Tsvangirai. Finance minister Biti went so far
as to write Mutambara’s political epitaph, declaring “he is finished”, but
the robotics professor rode the storm with the assistance of Mugabe and, to
a lesser extent, Tsvangirai .

Mugabe flatly refused to remove Mutambara
as deputy prime minister, insisting he did not want to interfere with court
processes.

Boosted by Mugabe’s endorsement, Mutambara flew to Chisumbanje
heading an inter-ministerial team that successfully negotiated a solution to
a long-running ethanol saga supposedly over whether or not to have mandatory
blending of petrol with ethanol produced by controversial business tycoon
Billy Rautenbach.

The saga had all the makings of a political soap
opera featuring the all-too-familiar plot of Zanu PF/MDC-T rivalry, with the
helpless Chisumbanje community whose livelihood was destroyed by the
advances of Rautenbach’s commercial enterprise in the sub-plot.

Ncube
boycotted the official opening of the Copac Second All-Stakeholders’
Conference in Harare at the end of October after Mugabe and Tsvangirai gave
Mutambara the podium as a principal. He, however, returned the following day
for the sub-committee deliberations and, as some comically pointed out, also
in time to collect handy participation allowances.

True to
expectations the conference failed to break the impasse over the draft
constitution and would be best remembered for Mugabe’s warning to delegates
— in a brazen display of his authoritarian disposition — that principals,
and not Copac or the people, would have the final say in the
constitution-making process.

“I am saying this because sometimes
parliament thinks that it is full of sovereignty that it should control the
acts of the principals; hazviite (it won’t happen)!” he said.

The
spineless MPs failed to respond. After all, many of them had been skipping
parliamentary sessions or sitting quietly through proceedings like blushing
brides, only finding their collective voices to make outrageous demands for
monetary payments and other incentives.

Some of the MPs abused the US$50
000 Constituency Development Funds meant to fund development initiatives in
their constituencies, but were saved by legal loopholes.

All this
came against the background of a United Nations Development Programme report
declaring 65% of MPs require intensive training in legislation and budget
analysis as they are not skilled or competent to perform their
tasks.

All this took place amid party in-fighting with none of the GNU
threesome immune.

In Zanu PF, it was manifest in the decision to
disband the district co-ordinating committees (DCCs) which had assumed the
mantle of kingmakers responsible for electing the party’s provincial
leadership and ultimately the national leaders.

Defence minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa, past master of so many covert Zanu PF power
contestations, had all the DCCs eating out of his hand only to have the rug
pulled from under his feet by schemers linked to alleged long-time
succession adversary, Vice-President Joice Mujuru.

In the MDC-T,
among the ruction highlights was the tension between Tsvangirai and his
deputy Thokozani Khupe which exploded into full view in November after
Tsvangirai exclusively told this paper Khupe would be disciplined for her
part in the violence that rocked the party’s Bulawayo congress last
year.

Like the proverbial stuntman, Tsvangirai performed a spectacular
somersault denying he ever uttered those words which were recorded for
posterity.

There was also drama in September when Tsvangirai had to fend
off sex scandals and scorned lovers after his former spouse Locardia
Karimatsenga-Tembo successfully petitioned the court to prevent him from
marrying Elizabeth Macheka under the Marriage Act Chapter 5:11. The wedding
was relegated to a customary ceremony.

Karimatsenga-Tembo, who
eventually won a reportedly handsome pay-off from Tsvangirai, was joined by
South African Nosipho Shilubane in seeking to block Tsvangirai’s wedding.
Talk about the fury of women scorned!

Ncube, rocked by a revolt which
resulted in defections by some of his elected MPs, fired legislators,
including deputy speaker of the house of assembly Nomalanga Khumalo. Later
Mutambara savoured the last laugh after the legislators declared allegiance
to him.

Once again Zanu PF failed to deal with the controversial
succession issue, with Mugabe retained as the party’s presidential candidate
in next year’s elections. Mugabe will be 89 years old, making him one of the
oldest presidential candidates in world history. If anything, touted
presidential aspirants Mnangagwa and Mujuru fell over each other in a rush
to deny their presidential ambitions by endorsing Mugabe.

All in all,
2012 was a year that promised so much yet delivered very little on the
political front — what with the snail’s pace of the constitution-making
exercise, inter and intra-party fights as well as failure to implement the
legislative reforms to usher in a democratic dispensation.